When pandemic strikes a sabbatical
The timing of COVID-19 is too much to be a co-incidence for an exact overlap with my sabbatical. When the supreme power of nature conspired against all my plans. And the world thinks, it’s because of their ignorance!
It all started when my sabbatical got approved, December 2019. India was a peaceful place back then, the world was unaware of the advancements of the soon to be turned pandemic. A silent killer spreading rapidly in a province of Wuhan, China. I was in the dreams of my own, planning how the next six months of my life will be. The great grand Manager at my work calls me to understand why I need a sabbatical just before signing as the authority on my request. He cuts the call saying, it is approved, take care.
I jumped with joy, teary eyes- ran to the kitchen hugging my mother and shouting ‘Its approved!’. My mother still has no clue till date that why I took the sabbatical. However, she smiles and expresses joy with my joy. She is happy that at least I did not quit my job when I had been thinking about leaving it for almost an year - that story is for another post! Nevertheless, I am more focused on how I am going to invest this time on myself and be a better person and make these 6 months into a lifetime memory. Never knew that these six months will not only turn into the lifetime memory for me but for the whole world for minimum next 100 years.
Ideas were floating in my head like a sky filled with colorful balloons. Like a pro-planner, I made a list of what I am good at and what I can convert into a side career and eventually move from my fucked up corporate life to an environment of work I can enjoy as well as earns. My cancerian bubble of dreams was flying in the 9th realm as explained by Thor - the god of thunder. My inner Dr. Bruce was ready to take the gamma radiation and become hulk during my sabbatical. The plan was to travel, find a course that can enhance the skill I want to diverge my career in, apply PR for a foreign country and find a guy for marriage.
The usual over ambitious target with no contingency plan. Most plans of the world fail due to the lack of Plan B or the contingency cushion. It was inevitable to fail, but my hunky dory dreams failed to see it. I booked tickets to various cities as per my travel plan - Dubai Feb to March, London - April, Bali - May, Mumbai - June. What did I do in June - nothing just Amazon prime and Netflix to feed on the cravings for stories. This craving was there for last 6 months, my work schedule barely allowed me to breathe, it was not possible to sit peacefully to watch a movie without a guilt of something getting messed up in background.
And what did I do in December, I spent it with my bed ridden dad, actually starting talking to my parents - which i was not doing for an year - yes the same year when I planned on leaving the shit-hole called my job. So the first destination was Dubai, 2 Months - the fruitful time of taking a break from ever thing and living in a space which i always wanted of my own with minimal disturbance. Dubai has some great universities, I had plans on researching them and visiting the campuses - on the other hand there are news floating about the COVID-19 spread in US and Europe - Spain topping the list after China.
The news spread like wildfire when Spain struggled to bury the dead bodies of corona patients. India preparing for lock-down and I am calm for two months in Dubai thinking, I am far from it. Have you heard of Murphy’s Law - what-ever can happen, will happen. I stored it in my short term memory, but i definitely remembered Snakes and Ladders - “When you are close to reaching the end point - there is a snake sitting and waiting to bite you” and Ludo - “when you are close to win, the opponent will come right behind you and kill your pawn right before you make it to the safe zone”.
Being too positive blinds sides damage control or focusing on one thing blurs the background. All my plans got shattered when Dubai, India and whole world went into the lock-down mode in March 2020. My return flight in the March 2020 was suspended and my rest of the flights to London, Bali, Mumbai - all incurred me losses, I have not been able to recover my money due to suspended flights in India. Money is still secondary - the plan of joining a course was sanitized away in the alcohol hand rub.
All countries are struggling to make vaccines and India is now moving to phase 5 of lock-down as the number of cases risen to 11K per day after Unlock 1 happened. Economies moving to recession and crumbling every passing week. It seems that everyone will keep suffering from the impact of COVID-19 even when it gets over. France has declared their economy will revive to pre-covid19 stage by 2022. Think about the developing countries. Nature has taken it’s revenge!
